Upon graduating from Ithaca (N.Y.) College in 1992, Edward Glazer formally joined the family firm, Rochester, N.Y.–based First Allied Corp. The firm owns a nearly 7 million-square-foot portfolio of community and neighborhood centers nationwide. Glazer spent about two decades there, overseeing acquisitions. In December 2014 he started his own company, Los Angeles–based U.S. Property Trust, which specializes in acquiring class-A unanchored or shadow-anchored centers in in-fill markets. Reflecting on his decision to launch the company, Glazer says the move was tied to succession planning.
“You get older and have kids and begin to look at things differently,” Glazer mused. “For my siblings and I, it was a matter of figuring out where do we go from here. It’s fine when there are six of you [working together], but what happens when the next generation comes along and there are now 14 of you? We decided to keep what we have but also to do our own thing for the sake of the next generation.”
Malcolm Glazer, now deceased, also owned professional sports teams, having purchased the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995 and British soccer club Manchester United in 2005. Edward Glazer is co-chairman of the Buccaneers and serves as a director of the family-controlled, publicly traded company that owns the soccer club. Meanwhile, at the firm he launched, he continues to do essentially what he has done for years: invest in high-quality shopping centers in strong markets — but with a different slant. “We are focused on shadow-anchored or unanchored properties,” said Glazer. “That sets us apart from a lot of other retail real estate investors.” The 12-person firm acquired roughly $100 million in assets its first year and has plans to keep investing at about that pace for the next several years.
U.S. Property Trust owns about a dozen shopping centers across the country. Tenants at these properties, which typically range from 10,000 to 50,000 square feet, include fast-casual restaurants, dry cleaners, clothing shops, dentist’s offices and nail salons. Glazer says he chose to focus on unanchored or shadow-anchored centers in part because these tend to be less risky than big-box-anchored shopping centers, especially now that some big-box retailers are shutting stores. Shadow-anchored centers are adjacent to large-format retailers like Home Depot, Target and Walmart.
U.S. Property Trust only acquires shopping centers in highly visible locations in high-income in-fill markets, Glazer says. Last year, for instance, the company bought a couple of small, road-front centers in Plano, Texas, near Costco, Home Depot and Walmart stores and across the street from an upscale mall anchored by Neiman Marcus. “Corporate investors generally like big-box-anchored centers because of their stable cash flow and because they are easy to operate,” said Glazer. “I like the flexibility of knowing that if one or two tenants leave, it will not affect my earnings. There is always somebody willing to lease a small shop the size of, say, a Hallmark store, but very few merchants can take a vacant Target.”
Glazer also takes comfort in knowing that restaurants, nail salons and other service-oriented tenants do not compete directly with e-commerce retailers like Amazon.com. “As much as everyone loves Amazon, I believe people still want to get out of the house and go have a meal or walk around a store,” he said. “You can’t get your nails done by Amazon.”
As the firm vies for deals in a heated acquisitions market, Glazer and his team are busy leveraging their reputations and connections in the shopping center industry. When he launched U.S. Property Trust, Glazer brought along talent from First Allied in addition to hiring new people. “Our strength is that people know us and have dealt with us for a long time,” he said. “We have a good name in the industry, and people know that when we say we are going to do a deal, we do a deal.” Glazer points with some satisfaction to his firm’s ability to make same-day offers, execute contracts within 48 hours and close within 21 days or less as an all-cash buyer.
It is rewarding to close a deal after a lot of hard work, Glazer says. “I come from a family business of real estate and sports,” he said. “People sometimes ask me how I like real estate, and I tell them that I love sports but it is just as exciting to have a closing as it is to score a touchdown or win a game.”